Many households use an outdoor charcoal or gas powered cooking grill. The grill is easily placed on and around the leisure areas of the yard, most commonly the deck or the patio area. The outdoor grill, while providing an alternative to cooking in the kitchen, presents a burn hazard for those persons working or playing in the vicinity of the grill, particularly children. The temperature of the grill surface is great enough to severely burn human skin in a matter of seconds.
Grill manufacturers have attempted to minimize exposed hot surfaces by adding handles, trays or working areas around the grill. These features have minimized the adult user's exposure to hot surfaces arising as a result of normal usage, however these features provide little protection to small children. The problem lies in the fact that a child's height is often below that of the handles or trays on a grill, leaving room for a child to accidentally, or at least unknowingly, come into contact with the hot surfaces of the grill.
Most grills have exterior surface temperatures that reach or exceed 450.degree. F., and can reach temperatures as high as 700.degree. F. Constructing an insulated surface for these grills is prohibitively expensive, would dramatically increase the cost to the consumer, and would most likely impact the performance of the grill.
Therefore, there is a need to reduce or eliminate accidental contact with the lower portion of a hot cooking grill. It would be desirable to have a screen or cover that was easy to install as an after-market screen. It would be further desirable if the design of the screen or cover was easily customizable to fit a significant number of commercial brands and types of grills.